After the Great Recession hit in 2008, people lost their jobs, took pay cuts, faced home foreclosure and scrambled to keep health insurance.

Republican Michael Pavia, who was mayor during the worst of it, 2009-2013, vowed to craft his budgets with an emphasis on holding down tax increases to ease the burden on struggling residents.

He cut city expenses, but mayors do not have that authority over school spending. So at budget time the Pavia administration would ask the Board of Finance and Board of Representatives to cut a few million from the school budget.

It didn’t happen at first. But eventually city and school officials got the message that they could not expect the same revenue from post-recession taxpayers.

At some point the Board of Education decided to tackle its huge and ever-increasing cost of health benefits, and reviewed the dependents employees list for coverage on their plans. In 2013 school officials found 26 dependents who were not eligible for the benefits they were receiving.

The audit saved the school board $200,000 a year.

Later in 2013 Democrat David Martin was elected mayor. In March 2014 Martin told The Advocate he wanted to review the city’s health-benefit costs, which are as huge and ever-increasing as those of the school board.

One way he planned to do it, Martin said, was to hire a firm to audit city employee health plan beneficiaries, as the school board had done.

In July 2015, during open enrollment for health benefits, the city human resources department emailed employees an explanation of who is considered a dependent.

As a result, 23 people were identified as ineligible dependents and were removed from the rolls. It will save taxpayers at least $184,000 a year.

But in Stamford, HR departments, school and city, have histories of high turnover, disorganization, inconsistent oversight and lax procedures.

The school district’s HR department has been in the headlines for more than a year for its part in the mishandling of a case in which a Stamford High teacher had sex with a student. The relationship continued for months amid suspicion, yet child-protection authorities were not notified.

The city’s HR department went without a director from 2008 to 2010, when Pavia hired Emmet Hibson, who soon discovered an error -- the city had not charged about 650 retired employees for increases to their health care contributions for at least a decade. That one cost taxpayers about $4 million.

That was followed by charges of nepotism against former HR employee Tania Barnes for signing paperwork that got her brother a job. That was followed by the arrest of longtime HR employee Fred Manfredonia, who admitted stealing more than $350,000 over several years.

So, though the Martin administration just saved taxpayers money by identifying ineligible dependents, there is skepticism.

The savings total, $184,000 a year, was derived from the estimated cost of covering each dependent, $8,000, times the 23 who were ineligible.

But that is only the baseline cost, Martin spokeswoman Libby Carlson said. There is no information about how long the ineligible dependents were covered.

If some of those dependents put in claims for major procedures, it would drive up the city’s insurance rates. How much were their claims?

“It’s unknown,” Carlson said.

Did Martin ask that the city be refunded?

“When the employees dropped these dependents we didn’t ask them for the reason they were dropped,” Carlson said. “We were glad they came forward.”

Those who did were granted amnesty.

“Many times people don’t understand what the policy is and amnesty gives them an opportunity to comply,” Carlson said. “It’s a common practice.”

The city hired a human resources firm, Buck Consultants, to examine health-care beneficiaries. The company, which will be paid $32,000, has begun its audit, Carlson said.

“If we find someone now, they will be prosecuted for the money the city spent on them,” she said.

It’s no small thing. In the 2013-14 fiscal year, the city, which is self-insured, paid $34.3 million in medical claims and the school board paid $42.3 million.

Republican Board of Finance member Sal Gabriele wants to discuss the matter.

“I would like the mayor to explain under what authority he can grant amnesty to people who may have committed fraud or embezzlement or larceny. I think it’s something a prosecutor should decide,” Gabriele said. “If it’s found that an employee did it in error, they should reimburse the city. When a homeowner doesn’t pay his WPCA bill, he doesn’t get amnesty. The city forecloses on his house to get the money.”

“Now that we have some results we should take a look at them,” Freedman said. “If you have as many people on plans as the city does and the Board of Ed does, you have to go through periodically and see if everyone should be there.”

Carlson said it’s common practice in the private sector to check every two to three years.

“It’s been found that companies can save 3 percent to 8 percent of health-insurance costs simply by identifying ineligible participants,” Carlson said.

Maybe Stamford is beginning to learn how to run an HR department. Now, for example, “when an employee wants to add a spouse or a child to their policy, they are asked to supply proof,” Carlson said.